Life is large. We cannot possibly grasp the whole of it in the few years that we have to live. What is vital? What is essential? What may we profitably let go?

Be wise in the use of time. The question in life is not "how much time do we have?" The question is "what shall we do with it?"

Value work. But not any kind of work. Ask yourself "Is the work vital, strengthening my own character, or inspiring others, or helping the world?".

Let us assume nothing, and we shall not be moritifed.

Whatever we really are, that let us be, in all fearlessness. Whatever we are not, that let us cease striving to be.

Every moment of worry weakens the soul for its daily combat.

Worry is spiritual nearsightedness, a fumbling way of looking at little things, and of magnifying their value.

time spent in being interrupted is not time lost. ... How do we know but that the interruption we snarl at is the most blessed thing that has come to us in long days?

It is not our failures that distress us so much as our idiocies.

Praying is the breath of life.

Life as it should be: all friends, all art, all music, all love, all the time.

Variety of uniformities makes complete beauty.

To shake your rump is to be environmentally aware.

The body is like a companion, a friendly pet that follows one around...One can continue to own the body and be responsible for it without identifying with it as one's identity.

Pity is exhaustible. What a terrible discovery!

People seem to fight about things very unsuitable for fighting. They make a frightful noise in support of very quiet things. They knock each other about in the name of very fragile things.

I had not spent a ton of time around animals as a kid.

Pau is one of the best big men in the game. I mean, Pau Gasol is going to be in the Hall of Fame.

Lord of the Rings was my first experience making movies and at the time, I had no ideas how movies were done. I thought that's the way they're done, so in a way, I had nothing to compare it to.